British Museum (Natural History) General GuideBritish Museum (Natural History)
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British Museum (Natural History) General Guide
British Museum (Natural History)
British Museum (Natural History) -- Guidebooks; Natural history museums -- England -- London -- Guidebooks
The largest exhibited specimen of the class is the head of a full-grown
example of the great Basking Shark (_Selache_, or _Cetorhinus,
maxima_), fig. 24, captured on the 2nd of March, 1875, near Shanklin,
in the Isle of Wight. The length of the entire specimen was
twenty-eight feet, but, as the minute size of the teeth indicates,
it is a comparatively harmless fish. A smaller female specimen is
suspended from the roof; and below this is placed a model of the
skeleton of the same species. Near by is a young specimen of another
basking species, the Elephant-Shark (_Rhinodon typicus_), which when
adult is said to attain a length of at least fifty feet. It inhabits
the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Models of some of the more remarkable types of extinct Fishes are
exhibited in cases on the same side of the gallery.
[Sidenote: Insect Gallery.[12]]
II. A small gallery is devoted to the group of Arthropoda or
Invertebrate animals with jointed limbs, such as Lobsters, Crabs,
Spiders, Centipedes, and Insects.
At the south end of this gallery are exhibited specimens of Crabs and
Lobsters. Among the former, special attention may be directed to the
specimens of the Giant Crab (_Macrocheira_) of Japan, and also to the
Coconut Crab (_Birgus latro_), fig. 25, which climbs trees to feed on
young cocoanuts, and is related to the Hermit-Crabs. In the central
table-cases, besides Crustacea (Crabs, Lobsters, etc.), are displayed
representative Scorpions and Spiders, including several examples of the
large Bird-eating Spiders of South America.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--THE COCONUT CRAB (_Birgus latro_)].
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